Clearing the Backlog or: How I learned to Accept Frugality

The word backlog has become a harbinger of anxiety, regret, and shame among many gamers these days. It's so easy! So easy to buy games, to amass a collection of unplayed and unfinished games; it grows in length, until it's shadow is so big it blocks out all vision needed to actually pick a game to play. Instead, causing you (or at least me) to choosing to re-watch Rick and Morty, over finishing and shrinking the backlog. I say no more!

I need to make a stand against buying more games than I can play. Because I'm seriously broke, and my spending habits are terrible. A big factor for this is feeling the need to, simultaneously, never pass up a sale for a great game (or a good game, or a potentially good game, or a controversial game that I want to experience so I can feel ok about myself when I way in on it, on the internet) and not wanting to miss the hot new games being released-the past couple years have been pretty hot too.

So I'm making a vow to you duders. I'm not going to buy any new video games until I clear my backlog...with a few possible exceptions.

What we are dealing with:

I was going to start this section with penis jokes comparing the size of my backlog to the size of others. But, since I'm showing better judgment these days, I decided to go against my better judgment and leave said jokes out. Instead, I'll just start with this: My backlog is definitely not as big as others. I'm 99% a console gamer (1% on macbook). And console's just don't have as consistent and low sales as the PC does. Steam makes it so easy to amass a backlog in the hundreds with it's annual sales, publisher bundles, and insanely low mark downs.

Still, I feel like I have a pretty decent build up of games. But a manageable one.

I'm going to stop dancing around here and just list out my backlog-god the formatting and linking sounds so exhausting. Here's a complete list of my backlog, with the systems I own it on, and a brief thing that pops into my mind when I see the game's title. It's going from the games I am "currently" playing to games I did not finish, and ends with games I haven't touched yet.

• Fallout 4 (PS4)-this is the first Fallout game I've gotten into. I like it a lot, but it's so biiiiiiggggggg. Haven't touched it in about a month. It's going to be the main RPG I work on.
• Saints Row IV (PS4)-I like this game quite a bit. The traversal is so much fun-I don't get the complaint some of the guys had about not needing cars anymore. I spent a lot of my time with it so far doing side stuff. If I'm going to stick with it to the end I think I'll need to just focus on story.
• Uncharted 4 (PS4, duh)-I rented this game and had to return it when I got to the half way mark. I really need to get it again;it's the first Uncharted game I like (yup I'm one of them:a sane person).
• The Walking Dead (PS4)-If memory serves, I'm halfway througe episode 5. I'm going to try and complete 1 episode a week-cuz there are more to come.
• Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions (Vita)-I never played any of the others(XBLA was not something I was aware of when the first dropped). I've been enjoying this game at work and while watching GB stuff.
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3)-Never played it when it first came out, but when the remastered got announced I decided to play this classic, without having to buy the new COD. I can see why it's revered, but at the same time I'm not really into. I'm going to plow through the rest some weekend.
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PS4)-I really liked this game, but then MGS V came out and I fell off it hard. I tried to go back to searchng for Dandelion, but I couldn't remember controls or places. So now I plan on waiting long enough to forget most of it and go back to it as fresh I can. I'm also 3 books deep, so I may just wait until I'm done with the series. This will be my next big RPG after Fallout.
• Galak-Z: The Dimensional (PS4)-Man this game is cool.And really hard. I got 3 seasons in then got distracted. I'm going to have to restart it to get accustomed with the controls again.
• Super Meat Boy (PS4 & Vita)-downloaded when free. Really excited to be able to play it and hopefully finish it on vita.
• Wolfenstein: The New Order (PS4)-Started it and never finished it. I loved the feel of the combat, and am set on restarting and finishing it.
• The Last of Us (PS4)-I've never been much of a Naughty Dog fan (aside from Crash). This game was theturning point for me, despite getting stuck and giving up.
• Injustice: Gods Among Us (PS4)-I'm bad at fighting games. I want to learn but they are so complex to me. I'm going to go back to this and the few others you will see on here and give it a good try to learn more. Or just put that shit on easy and enjoy the spectacle.
• Axiom Verge (PS4 & Vita)-I got stuck. Like I do with almost every metroidvania. but now I have a vita and renewed enery to complete this.
• The Walking Dead: Season Two (PS4)-Despite my tiredness of zombies in our culture I bought this, on sale, due to the universal praise of the series
• The Wolf Among Us (PS4)-I told you I had more episodic stuff in here. Bought on a sale despite hearing mixed things.
• Tales from the Borderlands(PS$)-Another telltalegamethat was cheap as shit, at some point. I hear this is some of their best stuff. Man I hope their Batman game is good.
• Portal (Mac)-This is one of those games I'm slightly embarrassed to admit I never played. I'm bad at puzzle games but humor is a hard thing to find in video games, and apparently this has it in spades
• Portal 2 (Mac)-My feelings are the same for this, as it is for the first, but 2. I don't know if that means twice as much or half as much. I'll let you know once I beat them both.
• Gone Home (PS4)-This has been on my list of must plays for a while now. Then I got it free on PS+ and the urge to play it became more palpable.
• Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number (PS4 & Vita)-I loved the first game. So once I saw this on sale I had to jump on it. I hear there is a lot of shooting, which makes me want to just get it for Mac and use a mouse. But that would go against everything this list stands for, wouldn't it?
• Mortal Kombat X (PS4)-I've heard how great the reboot (or whatever you want to call it) of this series was, and this being on sale made it too good to pass up getting a piece of that. But ya, I'm bad at fighting games.
• Limbo (PS4 & Vita)-This was my first introduction to "indie" games, when a friend showed it to me.
• Fez (PS4 & Vita)-Bought this game because of 2 reasons:It was on sale and the Bombers really seemed to love it. I know my brain will hurt.
• The Evil Within (PS4)-I don't know why I bought this, other than it was black Friday and I felt like spending money?
• Broken Age (PS4 & Vita)-I wasn't planning on playing this, until I started watching the documentary behind it. Now I want to experience it first hand. Plus it was free through PS+
• Grim Fandango (PS4 & Vita)-Another Tim Schaffer joint that was free through +. I hear it's one of the greatest adventure games of all time. Hopefully it holds up.
• Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (PS4)-It was like $3. That's basically nothing-other than a perfect example of my problem.
• Modern Warfare 2 (PS3)-I hear this one is good too. The only COD campaign I've evrer completed was Advance War. So I figured I should see the series roots.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PS3)-I guess I should see the roots of it the recycled, hate meme, it's now known as.
• Mass Effect Trilogy (PS3)-I bought all three together, so I'm listing them together. This series started at a time when I still hated RPG's due to my older brother hogging our Xbox to play KOTOR. It took me a while to not blindly hate anything with dialogue trees.
• Rayman Legends (PS4)-I like platformers and I don't have a Nintendo console right now. Also SALE.
• The Banner Saga (PS4)-I always wanted to try a turn based game. When this went on sale I struck at the opportunity.
• The Swapper (PS4 & Vita)-Another free + game that I've heard such great things about.
• Heavy Rain (PS3)-I've never played a David Cage game, but they look super interesting to me. So lets start at the one that put his name on the map.
• Furi (PS4)-The latest free + game. It's getting a lot of great buzz and I love the style of it.

Wow that took a while. But I feel like it's less daunting now that I wrote them all out.

But Wait, There's Stipulations

There are a few exceptions I want to add. You know, a few games that I might just need to buy. These are going to be my 3 exceptions:

• No Man's Sky-If this game lives up to the expectations that I have, then I'm going to pick it up and put my life on hold fora bit.
• Mortal Kombat-I may feel the need to play this before X, just because I'll be focusing on the story mode, and I'm a weirdo that likes to see things unfold in the fashion they were intended to be.
• Borderlands: The Handsome Collection-I may pick this up so me and a friend can play local co-op. We will see

The End of this Post, But the start of a Journey

The writing is done. The promises are made. All that's left is for me to not give in to my consumerist desires. Thanks for reading, or skimming. Like and subscribe for periodical updates on this and other musings-hopefully they will be better written in the future.